


Impressions

by Scribe32oz



Series: Seven Scrolls [7]
Category: The Magnificent Seven (TV)
Genre: F/M, Female Character of Color, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-26
Updated: 2018-08-26
Packaged: 2019-07-02 14:34:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15798528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scribe32oz/pseuds/Scribe32oz
Summary: A short scene set before the epilogue of Reckoning has Alexandra Styles reflecting on impressions of Nathan Jackson and her first exchange with Vin Tanner.





	Impressions

Since arriving in Four Corners, Alexandra Styles was assured of one thing. She was _not_ going to be bored.

Even though her clothes still reeked of smoke and ash, after narrowly escaping incineration at the hands of Victoria Kendall, she found herself using the premises belonging to Nathan Jackson, the local healer who was her first patient in town, treating the latest victim of the woman’s vengeance. She had already tended to Mary’s bruises and a dislocated jaw at the widow’s home, but the injury sustained by another of the town’s seven lawmen was severe enough for her to need a proper place to work.

He was unconscious when she saw him and recalled fleetingly before the more urgent business of saving his life took hold of her attention, he was the one in the slouch hat who had been staring at her the morning she arrived. _The one with the pretty eyes._ Unfortunately, she had little time to think more about it, because the wound he sustained was grievous. In truth, she was somewhat surprised he managed to fight off the men who inflicted it.

It was not to say he wasn’t exceedingly lucky. The bullet hit him in the lung and managed to avoid the heart. If it had penetrated any part of that organ, Alex knew for sure he would not have lived long enough to be brought to her. This time, without the aid of a nurse or Ezra Standish who was playing the part of constable to the town, Alex set to work repairing the damage, ensuring the vital functions of his body continued without disruption.

When it was all said and done, she collapsed in one of the chairs in Mr Jackson’s Infirmary and studied the place. While it was no traditional doctor’s office, she was impressed by what she saw on the shelves and the healer’s treatment benches. His instruments were clean and well cared for. The medications stored were some she knew and used herself. He also appeared to have a good understanding of herbology, which not many western practitioners subscribed to, but which Alex swore by. Travelling the world with her father taught her the sum of medical knowledge was not confined to the expertise of western doctors.

Not to say that Mr Jackson’s efforts to educate himself was any less formal. Whether or not he knew it, his small collection of books and periodicals were indicative of all physicians. Every doctor worth their salt had a small medical library, even herself. Her books were still in a trunk at Heidegger’s Hotel, waiting for a shelf to be placed on once she found herself some premises.

Mr Jackson’s books included old, worn textbooks on biology and to her surprise a copy of Florence Nightingale’s ‘ _Notes on Nursing for the Labouring Classes_ ’, and JH Barnes’s book on surgical nursing. Both would not have been easy to come by, and she made a mental note that when she unpacked, there were one or two essential omissions in his library, she had the power to remedy immediately.

Knowledge should always be shared, her father used to say and considering what was in her mind as she nursed the cup of tea she made herself, he would approve of what she intended to do. She was a mixed-race woman of colour who had fought to gain her medical and surgical license. If not for her father, she would never have even been admitted to medical school, let alone be allowed to qualify. Also gaining her degree did not make her a physician in the eyes of her peers. She had been driven halfway across the world, to this small dusty town to be to able practice medicine.

Even with those hurdles, she couldn’t even begin to imagine what obstacles Nathan Jackson must have in his way.

Sweeping her gaze across this small infirmary, she suddenly understood Mr Jackson very well and recognised the passion for healing that was all but unquenchable. There were those who became doctors for the money and prestige, but Alex and Nathan Jackson, it was a calling as fierce as any religion. Life was the god they worshipped and the flesh, the altar upon which they practised. She didn’t know how things were going to be in this town, but she knew one thing with absolute certainty, she was going to help Nathan be a better healer if he would let her.

Her father would have expected no less.

“Aw, hell...”

Alex allowed a small smile to cross her lips at the exclamation and set down the cup on the bench next to her. Lifting herself from her seat, she went to the bed her patient had been occupying since she completed the life-giving surgery.

He was lifting his head, his expression one of unhappiness, not because of the fresh bandages across his chest but the fact that he was in a state of undress. When he was brought to her, he was covered in dirt and blood after his ordeal with the men hunting him. There had been no time to properly clean him up because the urgency of his wounds made the need for surgery immediate. Only after it was done and he was unconscious, Alex was able to give him a light sponge bath without the awkwardness that it would entail.

“Don’t worry Mr Tanner,” Alex announced herself. “Your virtue is intact. I promise.”

He shifted those blue eyes in her direction and stared for a moment, his ire at being naked disarmed at the sight of her. Clearing his throat, Vin was almost afraid to ask. ‘You..?”

“Yes,” she nodded. “I’m afraid I had to clean you up. Your injuries are quite severe, and I was not risking your life with an infection that might be caused by lack of hygiene.”

“I ain’t no pig,” he countered, annoyed for some reason she might think so.

“I never said you were,” she came up to him and checked his bandages, noticing he went very still when her fingers made contact with his skin. _Men and doctors_ , she thought to herself and continued what she was doing.

Vin tried to ignore the delicate touch of her fingers against his skin or the way her hair seemed to sway in front of his face as she leaned over to examine him. He could see the shimmer in her dark locks and closed his eyes, trying to regain his focus. How was it that Vin was in pain, though not as much as he ought to be, and yet noticed everything about her? She smelled of rose water, and when she smiled at him a moment ago, he thought his heart would shatter by how it made him feel.

“Am I gonna live?” He asked, clearing his throat and trying to regain his composure, all of which she did not notice.

“Of course,” she straightened up and smiled at him.

 _That damn smile_ , Vin thought, maintaining his composure as she looked at him. That bullet to the brain smile that reached right down his throat and tore out his heart. When she stepped off the stage two days ago, the world had stopped spinning for a second, because deep down he knew, in no way that made sense, she was made for him. He should have said something to her then, and now it was too late because Ezra had staked his claim and the ache he felt in his chest was almost as wide as the hole Glassop and his men had put there with a bullet.

“Thank you,” he said quietly looking away from her because if he kept looking, Vin was going to do something stupid, as he’d done with Charlotte and that was _not_ going to happen again. He’d nearly broken his friendship with Chris, almost lost his place among the seven because of his love for Charlotte Richmond. Vin wasn’t going to do anything so reckless ever again. As much as it ached for him to stay away from this beautiful woman, he was going to have to do it.

“You’re probably not hurting as much as you should,” Alex explained, utterly oblivious to what was going on in his head. “I’ve administered morphia to dull the ache a bit, but you’re going to need plenty of bed rest for at least two weeks. Do you have lodgings?” She asked because he looked like one of those frontier types who probably slept under the stars or something.

“I got a wagon,” he explained, trying to keep his eyes from her face because if he kept looking at her, Vin was going to become more lost in her loveliness and right now, he needed to detach himself from her.

“That will not do,” she shook her head. “I’ll talk to Ezra, see if you can’t stay at the saloon where Mr Jackson is currently convalescing. You need to be somewhere I can treat you both.”

“I’ll be fine,” he said gruffly. Her calling Ezra by name made him bristle with annoyance.

“Mr Tanner,” she stared at him, not understanding the hard edge to his voice. “You are seriously hurt. You could have died if the men who shot you were any more accurate. Please,” she reached for his shoulder. “For your own sake, take my advice.”

Her hand on his skin felt like sparks of lightning, and he raised his eyes to hers to see her staring back, with no idea of the power she had over him. It was going to be this way from now on, wasn’t it? Vin cursed himself. She was going to plague his nights and torture him with longing. As Vin stared into her face, he also knew he would never be able to deny her anything even though to her, he was nothing but a patient.

“Alright,” he said finally, surrendering because that was all that was left for him to do. “Do what you gotta.”

“Good,” she smiled at him and didn’t know it was an action that did nothing but drive the blade in his heart another inch deeper. “Don’t worry. I’ll get you on your feet in no time and be out of your hair.”

Vin Tanner said nothing to that because he knew she was wrong. He wasn’t going to shake her any time soon. Not when a smile could make his heart beat just a little faster, and the smell of her now was going to fill his days forever. Even that odd accent of hers sounded like music to his ears, and he knew nothing was ever going to be the same again.

Jesus Christ, what the hell was he going to do?


End file.
